Bid to control Libya oil wealth likely to fail

Cairo - Libya's official government, operating out of hotels in the east after being driven from the capital, is unlikely to succeed in plans announced last week to divert the country's oil export income away from Tripoli.

Control over oil is at the heart of a struggle between two rival governments who are fighting for territory in the North African Organisation for the Petroleum Export Countries (Opec) state four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Both sides field armies of fighters whose salaries are paid with export revenues collected by the National Oil Company (NOC), which continues to operate out of Tripoli and sell oil abroad even though the capital is in the hands of a faction whose legitimacy is not recognised by the international buyers.